NEW YORK — He was taunted and booed and ridiculed for using the mantle “Carlos Danger.”

But there Anthony Weiner was, back on the campaign trail Wednesday after his bombshell news conference a day earlier, projecting the same defiance in the face of self-imposed adversity that has marked his surreal campaign for New York City mayor.

“It’s been rough,” he told reporters at one point, when asked how his last 24 hours have been. “These are things that I brought upon myself, I thought they were going to come out toward the end of the campaign, and some of them have. So look, I’m pressing forward.”

He was referring, of course, to his latest confession of inappropriate online sexual relations with young women. At a news conference Tuesday, Weiner joined his wife, longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, and admitted that, yes, there was more sexting incidents — even after he resigned from Congress in disgrace two years ago after accidentally tweeting a crotch shot.

At a forum among Democratic hopefuls in the Bronx Wednesday night, some of his lesser-known opponents let Weiner have it. Former city Councilman Sal Albanese dismissed him as a “distraction” from discussing the middle class and the Rev. Erick Salgado bashed Weiner for using the name “Carlos Danger” while engaging in his online dalliances. City Comptroller John Liu said Weiner was dodging a question (about credit checks, not sex selfies).

“If it is a distraction to talk about the challenges facing the middle class … to talk about the idea that we need affordable housing, to talk about [how] we need affordable education, if you think that’s a distraction, so be it,” Weiner swung back at Albanese. “I’m ready to have a serious conversation about issues. That’s what these good people came to hear.”

He flashed a sense of humor, however, when he and the other candidates onstage were asked “Facebook or Twitter?” A smiling Weiner, shaking his head, noted that his campaign uses Twitter. Turning to Salgado, who said he was trying to learn Twitter, Weiner cracked, “All I have to say is, Salgado, don’t ask me.”

Several campaign rivals have called on Weiner to drop out of the race, including former Comptroller Bill Thompson, who said earlier Wednesday he was “disgusted” by Weiner’s conduct. But the former Democratic congressman is refusing to budge.

He was booed earlier in the evening as he geared up to address a New York City Housing Authority public hearing, But catcalls were countered by cheers and some “amens” as he delivered a forceful address outlining some of his goals on the housing front.

There and at the debate, Weiner struck an assertive, and at times, aggressive tone.

At the mayoral forum, held at Bronx Community College, Weiner spoke mostly about usual mayoral campaign grist: education, health care and housing. Wearing a yellow tie and with his wedding ring on display, he had a vocal contingent of supporters on hand, many of whom wielded signs.

As he strode into the debate, mobbed by cameras and running reporters, his supporters drowned out the chants of all of the other candidates’ advocates, who also bore signs.

A smaller group of supporters gathered across the street from the earlier housing event. There, he turned his back on moderators, facing the crowd instead. He converted some of the more vocal members of the audience as he pledged a housing “Marshall Plan” and described his own encounters with decrepit public housing.

“We’re going to change the way we do things in this city,” he pledged. “No longer will the residents of public housing, or should they have to be, treated as if they are victims every day when they walk into their homes.”

He was swarmed by the pack of media, and he sought to make some overtures: His spokeswoman, wielding a bag of cupcakes, promised reporters at the housing event “treats” if they would move down the sidewalk, behind a barrier. And Weiner gamely sidled up to the waiting reporters and had press availabilities at both events.

But he declined to delve back in to the raunchier details of the story that surfaced on Tuesday. “Some things that have been posted today are true and some are not,” he said a day earlier, while apologizing for his actions.

“People have to make their decision,” he said, when a reporter noted that some voters are questioning his credibility. “There’s more time in this campaign and I’m going to keep talking about the issues and the middle class struggling to make it, and I understand part of it is earning people’s trust. I certainly understand that.”

When pressed on why he hadn’t been more forthcoming about other women with whom he was having possible explicit exchanges, Weiner downplayed his most recent accuser.

“I don’t want to be in a position of refuting what anonymous people on blogs said,” Weiner told reporters, referring to graphic alleged conversations that took place between himself and another woman, posted on the gossip website thedirty.com. “They have a right to say whatever they want. I brought that upon myself.

”I’m not gonna get into a back-and-forth with an anonymous person who obviously doesn’t want to become public. They have every right in the world to say whatever they want, to release whatever they want. But I’m not gonna do it and I’m not gonna litigate this.”

Nik Richie, owner and editor of the thedirty.com, told POLITICO on Wednesday afternoon that the woman who made the allegations reported on his website is looking to go public, “my guess is tomorrow.”